Preserving heirlooms

I work to preserve buildings, not books, but recently got this request
from a friend:

    My father's sister died recently, and my cousins have started
    cleaning out her apartment. They dug up a shopping bag full of
    papers which my father now has. There's a whole bunch of neat
    stuff--my grandparents wedding invitation and marriage license, both
    their certificates for completing elementary school, my
    grandfather's law degree (it was a sheep once). You get the idea,
    anyway they are randomly folded and curled and we need to know 1)
    how to flatten them safely and 2) how to store them. Any
    suggestions?

I would appreciate it if someone can suggest simple procedures for lay
people. Thanks,

Dean Koga

                                  ***
                  Conservation DistList Instance 7:81
                  Distributed: Thursday, May 12, 1994
                        Message Id: cdl-7-81-010
                                  ***